


safe harbor

by stormwarnings



Series: tolkien gen week 2020 [5]
Category: The Silmarillion and other histories of Middle-Earth - J. R. R. Tolkien
Genre: Day Five, Friendship, Gen, Kinda fluff, Social Anxiety, Tolkien Gen Week, diversity, elves with anxiety
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-07-11
Updated: 2020-07-11
Packaged: 2021-03-05 01:07:58
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,196
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25195933
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/stormwarnings/pseuds/stormwarnings
Summary: Erestor was not particularly adept at talking to others.
Relationships: Erestor & Glorfindel & Ecthelion of the Fountain
Series: tolkien gen week 2020 [5]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1820518
Comments: 6
Kudos: 37
Collections: Tolkien Gen Week 2020





	safe harbor

**Author's Note:**

> followup (sorta) to my ecthelion and glorfindel fic, day five of [tolkien gen week](https://tolkiengenweek.tumblr.com/) bit rough but am Stressed and i like the idea of soft boys helping each other through small anxiety attacks

Erestor had, generally, over the course of many years, learned how to deal with people.

He had determined long ago that his mind operated slightly different than most – his constant worries, his frequency to get lost in them. His tendency to freeze up, to avoid social gatherings, with barely a clue why he could not handle them the way that the rest of his people could.

Perhaps that was why he had found himself in the company of Elrond, and why he had followed him so steadfastly. For Elrond was like him, anxious, all the time – the paranoia born of a childhood on the run.

So Erestor was not particularly adept at talking to others. He had learned to, over the years, as he rose within Elrond’s household. He had managed to create ways out of the spirals of worry and fear. Had figured out how to gauge how much interaction to handle, how to know when he needed to stop, what people he could retreat behind should he not be able to leave.

Glorfindel had always been a bit of an outlier. Somehow, the exuberant elf, possibly the opposite of every single other being that Erestor considered ‘safe’, had wormed his way past his defenses. And Erestor had found himself looking to Glorfindel in the crowded room, withdrawing to him when things became too loud or too bright or too overwhelming and worrying.

Glorfindel had seemed to pride himself on this. It had made Erestor a bit happy, that the legendary hero who had quite literally been returned from the dead by the Valar themselves, was proud to have made a friend out of Erestor.

Of course, now things were different.

Now they were in Valinor, and there were elves everywhere, elves that Erestor did not know, and Elrond was spending the day with Celebrían, and Erestor did not exactly envy him, but he certainly did, because instead of trying to talk to _Elrond_ , all the elves were trying to talk to _Erestor_ (and he didn’t know why, other than some throwaway comment that Elrond had mentioned him a lot), and while Erestor’s Quenya was certainly rather good, that did not mean that he felt well-equipped enough to speak with _Fingon the Valiant,_ nor _Turgon,_ once the king of _Gondolin_ (Glorfindel’s king, not that Glorfindel was anywhere to be found), and so generally, Erestor was overwhelmed, and tired, and this day was not going precisely the way he had expected (hoped? dreamed?) that it would.

Which really just made him feel worse, because he had this grand tendency to build things up in his head, hope for them and long for them, and then become incredibly frustrated and disappointed in himself when, inevitably, they did not live up to his hope – especially when it was all his own fault. For it was his fault that he couldn’t talk to these people, and that he, for _some_ reason, couldn’t handle so many of them, even though any normal functioning being ought to be able to –

“Are you well?” Asked King Turgon.

Erestor offered him a strained smile. He hoped he hadn’t missed anything important. “Yes, I am fine, thank you.”

Turgon looked like he might not agree, but he was interrupted by the bright voice of Glorfindel.

“Erestor! Finally, it has taken much searching to find you.”

Erestor turned to him, hoping he did not look too much like a drowning man gasping for air. “Glorfindel, hello.”

Glorfindel stood with an elf of a similar build, dark-haired and clothed in blue and silver. The two of them in their livery looked like they belonged in a story, and it would be a good story, the kind you sang, not the kind Erestor was in, where he could barely handle a conversation without feeling like he might return his lunch back to the earth.

Glorfindel, meanwhile, offered a charming smile to Turgon. “Many apologies, my liege, but I need to steal our lovely Chief Counsellor away. He’ll be back soon, I’m sure, but it truly can’t wait.”

Turgon nodded, albeit reluctantly, and Glorfindel swept Erestor in between him and the dark-haired elf, and then they walked him out of the room.

The bright sunlight was not Erestor’s favorite thing, but the fresh sea air was a welcome relief from the room, which had started to feel like it was suffocating him. The two elves escorted him to an overlook, and then they paused to survey the beautiful architecture of Tol Eressëa. The cloaks of Glorfindel and the other elf flowed dramatically with the breeze, complementing the night and day locks that both wore unbound. ( _Perfect_ , Erestor thought, rather hysterically, _now there are two of them._ )

Erestor leaned against the railing in relief, then remembered himself. “Greetings,” he said, more brusque than he meant. “As you may have assumed, I am Erestor.”

“Hello,” the dark-haired elf replied mildly. “I am Ecthelion of the Fountain.”

Erestor blinked, and decided that he surely ought to have put that together. _Stupid_. “Ah, yes, it is a pleasure to meet you.” He floundered for something courteous to say, and then noticed that Glorfindel was holding back a smirk.

And that really did not make him feel better, and despite his many years of practice in dealing with foreign dignitaries and unhappy petitioners, he found himself reddening, and hunching over, and trailing off, until all was silent, and he was mentally kicking himself for every single moment of the past few hours. “I apologize,” he said quietly.

Ecthelion sighed. “You’re an idiot, Fin.”

Which was…not what Erestor was expecting. “What?”

“Not you,” Ecthelion said. “You’re fine; in fact Glorfindel’s right, you really do have quite the way with words, I’d say Turgon was almost impressed. No, I mean you,” he glanced at Glorfindel, and then back to Erestor, “we probably shouldn’t have swept you out of there, and made you the center of attention.”

“I’ve done that before!” Glorfindel protested.

Which, Erestor supposed, wasn’t really wrong. He definitely had, but they’d gotten over that many years ago.

Ecthelion was giving Glorfindel an unimpressed look.

Glorfindel addressed Erestor. “You did not look well. Truly, I have not seen it that bad for a long time.”

Erestor winced. He hoped it had not been as bad as Glorfindel seemed to believe. “It’s fine,” Erestor said. “I’ll be alright.” Because _really_ , he did know his own limits, this just happened to be rather abnormal, extenuating circumstances.

Glorfindel reached an arm around him, as he had done many times. “Of course you will. It is alright to need a break, though.”

Ecthelion nudged Erestor. “It’s alright if you need a break from him, too.”

Erestor sputtered, and the pair of them laughed.

Ecthelion looped his arm around Erestor’s shoulders. “So. If we may start chronologically, I would like to hear all the times that someone propositioned Glorfindel, and it went straight over his head. Oh, and perhaps all the times he managed to get his hair caught in a bush, for I am sure he did, just as I am sure you have _many_ good stories.”

It seemed that, perhaps, Erestor had found another safe harbor.

**Author's Note:**

> woohoo lmk if yall liked it (also i love these three so much im definitely gonna write more about them (whom do i ship tho...)) come chat on [tumblr](https://stormwarnings.tumblr.com/) :)


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